Transfer Alamo Plaza to Texas

Published 2:35 pm, Friday, February 28, 2014

As a shrine for all Texans, the entire Alamo site, including the plaza, should be under state stewardship and out of the city's control.

As a shrine for all Texans, the entire Alamo site, including the plaza, should be under state stewardship and out of the city's control.

Photo: BILLY CALZADA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson asked the city to transfer or lease Alamo Plaza to the state.

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson asked the city to transfer or lease Alamo Plaza to the state.

Photo: Courtesy

Transfer Alamo Plaza to Texas

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SAN ANTONIO — It has all the earmarks of a look-at-me gambit in the midst of a fiercely fought lieutenant governor campaign. And the timing is irrelevant to the merits of Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson's bid to transfer the Alamo Plaza to the state.

The idea is eminently meritorious. And long overdue.

It was a good idea last year when Patterson's staff first told this Editorial Board that the “Land Office would support an effort to once again rejoin the Plaza to the adjacent Alamo complex and place it under state control.” It was a good idea before that and is the best way forward now, even if the political season is well underway in Texas.

Last week, Patterson, also a candidate for the GOP lieutenant governor nomination, made it formal. In a letter to Mayor Julián Castro, Patterson asked the city to consider transferring or leasing the plaza to the state, which owns the Alamo complex that includes the chapel and the long barracks.

But the political season is not the only event that poses a timing issue. The city is forming a 21-member committee to consider the plaza's future. The choices will be completed by March 6. The state, as the shrine's custodian, already has a guaranteed seat.

We prefer a fast track to state ownership. A full transfer, not a lease.

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The truth is that this should have been a state committee from the start. Dual city/state ownership is nonsensically artificial — and has been an impediment to a unified vision for what the entire site can be. The plaza can no more be separated from what occurred at the site in 1836 than the chapel or long barracks.

Patterson makes the observation in his letter: “Alamo Plaza IS the Alamo. Any value, economic or historic, associated with Alamo Plaza is directly attributable to the state Alamo complex.”

State, rather than city, resources are better equipped to fulfill this vision under “a singular authority.”

Patterson didn't say it, but we will. The evolution of the historical site to the inappropriate carnival atmosphere that pervades the plaza now occurred under city stewardship.

The site is a state treasure in any case. It stands to reason then that the state, on behalf of all Texans, should be that “singular authority.”

The city will likely prefer that this track, fast or slow, run through its own committee. And since it has ownership of the plaza, it is in a position to insist. Moreover, it has wiggle room because Patterson, forgoing re-election to land commissioner to run for lieutenant governor, is essentially a lame duck and it's unclear how a successor will deal with the issue.

But Patterson's letter still serves a valuable purpose. If the committee doesn't make this question of ownership a priority, it will not be doing its job. The Patterson letter, if nothing else, makes the topic of ownership harder to ignore.

In the unlikely event that the City Council puts the question of ownership on its own agenda and on a faster track (bypassing the committee), this committee would still have been necessary. Whether it is by a state or city committee, the issue of how best to restore the Alamo to historical accuracy needs to be settled.

Councilman Diego Bernal, in whose district the Alamo sits, told the newspaper that the committee could consider the ownership issue.

Yes. It must.

Texas will be best served by a site restored as much as is possible to the original footprint. And, given the city's track record on the plaza, this is more likely to occur under state stewardship.